just deserts
What's rightfully owed
Just deserts means the outcome someone deserves, especially punishment or misfortune fitting their actions: He finally got his just deserts after years of cheating people.
The phrase is often misspelled "just desserts," but deserts here comes from an old word meaning what is deserved, not the sweet course or sandy wastelands.
Deserved punishment or rebuke
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- retributionPunishment for wrongdoing
- punishmentPenalty for an offense
- penaltyPunishment for wrongdoing
reckoning · repercussion · outcome · result · aftermath · fallout · backlash · recompense
Punishing a wrongdoer
- retaliationPunitive response to injury
- reprisalPunitive action in return
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- settling scoresAvenging past grievances
Just and equal treatment
- equityImpartial treatment or ownership value
- righteousnessMoral correctness or virtue
- fair playHonorable conduct in games
- integrityMoral soundness and consistency
honor · decency · uprightness · evenhandedness · impartiality · rightness · merit · proportionality
Predetermined course of events
- destinyPredetermined course of events
- balanceSteadiness or amount owed
- cause and effectHow events produce results
- dharmaCosmic moral order
moral order · universal law · reciprocity · what goes around · reaping · sowing · life lessons · equilibrium
comeuppance
Deserved punishment or rebuke
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- retributionPunishment for wrongdoing
- punishmentPenalty for an offense
penalty · reckoning · repercussion · outcome · result · aftermath · fallout · backlash · recompense · dues
revenge
Punishing a wrongdoer
- retaliationPunitive response to injury
- reprisalPunitive action in return
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
settling scores · counterstrike · vindication · getting even · nemesis
fairness
Just and equal treatment
- equityImpartial treatment or ownership value
- righteousnessMoral correctness or virtue
- fair playHonorable conduct in games
integrity · honor · decency · uprightness · evenhandedness · impartiality · rightness · merit · proportionality · accountability
fate
Predetermined course of events
- destinyPredetermined course of events
- balanceSteadiness or amount owed
- cause and effectHow events produce results
dharma · moral order · universal law · reciprocity · what goes around · reaping · sowing · life lessons · equilibrium · wheel of fortune
- fairnessfair play, fair shake, fair treatment, fair and square, fair share
- penologypenology, prisons, incarceration, parole board, prison
- retributionretribution, revenge, payback, vengeance, retaliation
- ironic twiststwist of fate, dramatic irony, situational irony, tragic irony, reversal of fortune
- consequencesconsequence, consequences, result, results, effect
- fatedestiny, fate, kismet, Moira, fated
just desertsmercy
Compassion toward offenders
pardon · clemency · amnesty · forgiveness · reprieve
just desertsinjustice
Denial of fair treatment
miscarriage of justice · unfair treatment · cruel and unusual punishment · getting away with murder · excessive punishment
just, desert, justice, adjust, deserve, deserved, justify, unjust, adjustment